Analysis

"Exiled and subjugated communities like the Palestinians today usually behave in ways that seem strange to middle class consumers in faraway lands, including fighting apparently futile battles and subjecting their populations to prolonged suffering and death — and then doing the same thing again a few years later. This can only be understood by appreciating the nature of 'resistance' and the allure of 'liberation,'" writes Rhami G. Khouri in the Daily Star.

"What the Obama Administration seems unable to grasp, or finds inconvenient to admit, is that the peace process cannot just be paused; to say that the parties to the conflict must want peace more than Americans is to condemn them to leaders who, in the short run, benefit from conflict, and hand Americans, and everyone else, an insufferable future," writes Bernard Avishai for the New Yorker.

"So what does the current round of violence mean for the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following the recent round of violence? Our research as well as other studies would suggest a pessimistic outcome. Given the increase in the number of Israelis who are within the range of rockets, and the high number of Palestinian casualties, the recent round of fighting is likely to cause individuals on both sides to harden their attitudes towards each other, making a peaceful resolution of the conflict less likely," write Anna Getmansky and Thomas Zeitzoff for the Monkey Cage.

AMERICAS

China’s Xi Begins Goodwill Tour

Brazil on Thursday will host Chinese president Xi Jinping for a state visit before he launches the China–Latin America Forum (AFP) at a summit with the CELAC group of Latin American and Caribbean states. Venezuela, Cuba, and Argentina are also on his itinerary.

Lauren Dickey and Sharone Tobias preview the Chinese leader's economic and strategic ambitions for the trip.